New scheme at Tesco store in Princes Risborough to ensure unsold food doesn’t go to waste

Neil Shefferd

The Tesco store in Princes Risborough has launched a new initative in partnership with charity FareShare which will see unsold food become meals for vulnerable people in the town.

The Community Food Connection programme with FareShare FoodCloud sees charities and community groups become linked to Tesco stores via an innovative app that allows store teams to alert them to surplus unsold food items available at the end of each day.

The unsold food is free and includes fresh produce, such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products while chilled products like meat, dairy and ready meals are also offered.

There have been 275,000 meals donated to people in need via Community Food Connection to date, following a successful pilot in 14 stores last year and a national rollout from March this year, which has seen 712 charities sign up to the scheme so far.

Rachel Finn, head of Community Food Programmes at Tesco said: “No food that can be eaten should go to waste.

“We’re really excited to start working on this initiative to ensure that any unsold food we have is made use of.

“We are looking forward to forging strong links with local charities and community groups in Kent, and to use this initiative to support their efforts to help vulnerable people in our community.”

FareShare FoodCloud is the latest step in Tesco’s work with FareShare on the provision of surplus food.

Any charities or community groups in Princes Risborough using food to support people that would like to access the scheme should register their interest by visiting www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-foodcloud.